4,000 in Beijing Sars quarantine

Struggling to contain the Sars outbreak, Beijing city officials today sealed off a third hospital, closed college dormitories and ordered 4,000 people who might have been exposed to the killer virus to stay at home under quarantine.

The closure of the Ditan Hospital in northern Beijing came less than two weeks after foreign reporters were allowed to tour the facility, officially touted then as a showcase of the government's Sars preparedness.

It wasn't immediately clear how many patients and staff were in the hospital, which has 500 beds and 643 workers.

Visitors couldn't go into Ditan but medical staffers were allowed to leave the hospital, which specializes in infectious diseases. A hospital official said the measure is meant to prevent the spread of the Sars virus among visitors and non-Sars patients.

Dormitories at the Northern Jiaotong University and the Central University of Finance and Economics have also been closed off, affecting 600 students.

So far, the Health Ministry has reported 42 Sars deaths in Beijing and a total death toll of 115 nationwide. The country has reported a total of 2,601 cases, with more than 870 in Beijing.

Vice Premier Wu Yi said China will spend 3.5 billion yuan (US $420m) to set up a nationwide health network to fight Sars and other medical emergencies.

Another 2 billion yuan (US $240m) will be set aside to pay for emergency medical services for people with Sars who can't afford their own care, Wu said.

Quarantine ordered

Also today, a Beijing health official said 4,000 people who had "intimate contact" with others showing Sars symptoms have been ordered to stay at home under quarantine.

Speaking at a news conference, the deputy director general of the Beijing Health Bureau didn't say who the people were or how long they had been ordered to stay home.

The announcement by Guo Jiyong came two days after Beijing said it was invoking emergency powers to quarantine people exposed to the virus that causes Sars.

A city government spokesman denied rumours that authorities planned to declare martial law in Beijing or close the city's airports and highways.

Cai Fuchao, head of the city's propaganda department, said the city government was coordinating with China's military to ensure that all cases were reported.

Military hospitals had earlier failed to report Sars patients to civilian authorities, leading to complaints that China was not fully disclosing information on the outbreak.

People flee Beijing

In recent days, officials have discouraged people from traveling for fear they might spread Sars to uninfected areas of this massive country.

However, many people in Beijing - mostly migrant workers and students - have ignored the warnings and fled the capital.

In the southern city of Wuxi officials were blocking buses from Beijing from entering the city, about a two-hour drive west of Shanghai, said a manager at the Wuxi Long Distance Bus Station, who only gave her surname, Zhang.

In Shanghai - China's biggest metropolis - a Highway Administration official said special Sars inspection teams were checking vehicles at every highway toll gate near the city's border.

"Particularly vehicles from affected areas will be seriously checked," said the official, who refused to give her name.

Ditan is the second hospital to be quarantined this week. On Thursday, officials sealed off the People's Hospital of Peking University and on April 9, officials shut down the People's Armed Police General Hospital after staff members fell ill with Sars.